Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
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Over £100m to help councils unlock their housing market
Councils will get over a hundred million pounds tomorrow to help maintain the building of the family and first-time buyer homes still desperately needed announced Housing Minister Margaret Beckett today.
The 2008-09 Housing and Planning Delivery Grant will provide for the first time additional direct funding top up for councils to ensure that new homes are built where families need them.
The Government has already announced a series of measures to alleviate the current challenges in the housing market and support the vital delivery of more homes over the long-term.
While many councils already deliver good quality homes quickly it is vital that all continue to be flexible and responsive given the current economic climate. Properly identifying land for homes will help hard working families and give the house building industry greater certainty around development proposals.
This new incentive will ensure that councils are able to act now. Those rewarded Councils can decide locally how best to spend this extra funding.
Housing Minister Margaret Beckett said:
"We are determined to continue to do everything possible to ensure long-term fairness in the housing market all across the country - including providing more affordable homes we still need.
"The international credit crunch has created significant challenges for the UK but we have a growing and ageing population and the long term need to provide more homes has not gone away."
"The allocation of £101m will go a long way to ensuring councils and builders are ready to take advantage when the upturn in the economy comes."
In order to be eligible local authorities must show progress on:
* continuing to provide suitable land for development over future years, particularly as the housing market recovers from current economic challenges
* providing the local plans necessary to deliver the needed homes
* carrying out a strategic assessment of their housing market
We recently announced a £1billion package of support which will help first time buyers facing difficulties entering the market; support vulnerable households at risk from repossession; and will deliver more affordable homes sooner, whilst also helping the house building industry. A further £410m will be made available over the subsequent two years of the HPDG scheme.
Notes to editors
1. In July this year we published the provisional allocations (see Annex A) of HPDG for year one alongside 'Housing and Planning Delivery Grant: Allocation Mechanism and Summary of Consultation of Responses'.
2. Following evaluation of the challenges received the final allocations published today shows the breakdown between planning and housing elements and the amount of grant awarded under each category resulting from the revised allocations. Available here: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/corporate/pdf/1053421.pdf
3. On 2nd September Hazel Blears announced the next steps of an on-going programme of action to support the housing market in England, including:
* offering 10,000 first time buyers currently frozen out of the mortgage market the chance to get onto the property ladder through a new £300m shared equity scheme
* supporting up to 6,000 of the most vulnerable homeowners facing repossession to remain in their home through a £200m mortgage rescue scheme
* £100m investment to support SMI reform which could help prevent a further 10,000 repossessions
* working with Regional Development Agencies to support the most critical regeneration schemes with the most potential to transform their communities
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